The suicide rate of Korea is ranked no.1 among OECD countries. Approximately 42 people a day are committing suicide, and about 15,000 people commit suicide a year. In the past, mainly elderly people committed suicide but nowadays a lot of young people as well as adolescents commit suicide. According to the result of a recent 1 year survey, the percentage of adolescents who felt the impulse to commit suicide at least once reached up to 9%. From 60 to 70% of suicides are cau sed by mental illnesses such as depression or anxiety. If you check on the cause of increasing crime rates as well as the increasing number of offenders, you can see that most of the criminals are suffering from a mental disorder; they feel anxiety very often. Why do you think modern people suffer from such mental illnesses?
Modern society changes and gets more complex every day; endless competition and pressure alienates people, putting them under serious stress, even leading them to suffer from mental illness. These days, mental illnesses are also becoming more diverse, and their seriousness and side effects deeply pervade our society. There are mania, depression, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, mysophobia, insomnia, schizophrenia, panic disorder, to name a few. Let’s look at the details of each symptom.

-Mania: Feeling of an excited state continues for more than a week.
-Depression: Pessimistic sense of inadequacy, isolation, futility, guilt, suicidal and lost motivation of living.
-Bipolar disorder: Endogenous psychosis in which mania and depression happen in turn; main symptom is disabling feeling.
-Obsessive-compulsive: Without patient’s will and control, repeated feelings of discomfort and anxiety keep emerging in patient’s head.
-Mysophobia: Morbid obsession with cleanliness.
-Insomnia: Unable to sleep at night. It occurs in the case of neurosis, depression, schizophrenia, etc.; when the body condition is too poor or agitated.
-Panic disorder: Severe worries about what will happen very soon. Patient may feel like dying or going insane, losing control and spasmodic.
-Phobia: Severe fear for various factors; acrophobia, claustrophobia, etc.
-Forgetfulness: A pathological condition due to impairment of memory.

There are many ways that you can self-diagnose mental illness, and counseling with a psychiatrist or psychotherapist is even better. Below are tips for self-diagnosis of stress modern people have to deal with.
Degree of stress awareness.
<Check each box depending on how often you have felt the stress over the last 1 month.>

Never

Little

Sometimes

Often

Very often

1. How many times do you experience the feeling of embarrassment due to an unexpected incident?

0

1

2

3

4

2. How many times do you experience the feeling of not being able to control the important things in life?

0

1

2

3

4

3. How many times do you experience the feeling of being stressed and sensitive?

0

1

2

3

4

4. How many times do you feel that you can’t handle the work you have to?

0

1

2

3

4

5. How many times do you feel that you can’t control your anger?

0

1

2

3

4

6. How many times do you feel that you can’t manage your workload?

0

1

2

3

4

7. How well do you control the stress of everyday life?

4

3

2

1

0

8. How often do you feel that you are in the best condition?

4

3

2

1

0

9. How often do you feel confidence in having to deal with your personal issues?

4

3

2

1

0

10. How often do you feel that everything is going well as you planned?

4

3

2

1

0

In order to determine the degree of your stress, find the sum of your score below after you complete the test.
-13 points or less: Normal range of stress. You are managing your life and work properly.
-Above 14 points: Already under the effects of stress. If this condition persists, you can see the results of bad stress.
-Above 17 points: Susceptibility to mental illness is likely to become higher.
-Above 19 points: Professional help is needed.

Have you tried the self-diagnose test? You may feel embarrassed for the high score you get. Many people are not aware that they have a symptom of mental illness, believing that they are the exceptions. But, mental illness can come to anyone and it is one of the most serious diseases in modern days. You must have heard the saying; stress is the cause of all disease. Stress is always present in our daily lives, and we can deal with it to a certain degree. But piling up the stress unresolved can lead to dangerous physical and mental illness.

What are the causes of stress? It varies depending on situation, individual, and environment. Experts divide the causes of stress as the external ones and the internal ones, and most stress comes from the internal ones. Physical environments make the external causes of stress, such as noise, strong light, heat, and limited space. Social stress causes include rudeness, command, and friction with others. Ordinary stress occurs in many kinds of everyday situations. Inner stress is caused by lack of sleep or excessive work; pessimistic thinking, lack of self-confidence, and unrealistic expectations all could be its results.

Then, how to manage stress? We tend to think that only our mind responds to stress, but our body should be relaxed as well. A regular lifestyle is most important, as it is the start of a healthy life. A healthy diet is also important, and you may need to avoid alcohol, caffeine, sugar, salt, processed instant foods, fast food, etc. In addition, you need to take enough sleep. 6 to 8 hours may be suitable, and don’t forget to exercise every day. Walking is the best exercise, so walk more than three times a week for at least 45 to 60 minutes a day. It is a good way to go if you did not exercise at all, and try to increase time or number of walks step-by-step.
In the rapidly changing modern society, people cannot help but feeling frustrated to experience the endless competition. You can’t take a break at all. But the fast pace of the short-distance race can make you easily exhausted, and you should manage yourself by having a rest and taking care of your mental health. Most of all, you should correctly perceive reality to manage stress. First, you must admit that you are uncomfortable in the current situation. If you begin to feel the stress more and more, you need to try and avoid the stress as much as possible. If it is not possible to actively flee from the stress, at least accommodation is required.

This does not mean you should abandon something to avoid stress, just try to pass it by lightly. You need to be equipped with the proper problem solving strategy to cope with your stress. Once again, mental illness can lead to a dangerous situation when the stress continues to pile up. That is why it is important to check your stress ahead, so you can fix it. There might be no one single solution that may apply to every kind of stress, but you should live with positive thinking, taking care of your body condition. In addition, a hobby can be a source of vitality in your life, and spending time with your friends can be another way to relieve your stress.
The most important thing is to know whether you are suffering, what the cause is, and what the solution is. Lack of communication in the modern world often results in the phenomenon of loneliness in the crowd. Let’s think positively, and be grateful of all the love and small things in our lives so we can lead a more healthy and valuable life.